Today's weather: Be ready for almost everything

Thursday

Feb 20, 2014 at 7:00 AM

By Jim.Hayden@hollandsentinel.com(616) 546-4274

Two Jenison women had to be rescued after the roof of their house collapsed. A man slid off a roof in Park Township as he removed snow. Several people have been injured falling down steps and in parking lots.More of these incidents are possible today and Friday as temperatures rise into the 40s, then drop below freezing.Freezing rain this morning with widespread rainfall from a half inch to an inch — and even some thunderstorms — are possible today along with fog, according to the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids.Today’s high is expected to be around 44 degrees.The rain and melting will increase flooding from clogged drains and add to stress on already weakened roofs.Margaret Scott, 81, and Karla Scott, 45, were trapped in their home at 2367 Basswood St. in Georgetown Township after the roof collapsed at 3:23 a.m. Wednesday. Members of the Georgetown Township Fire Department extricated the women who were then taken by ambulance to Spectrum Health Butterworth Campus in Grand Rapids.A 58-year-old Holland woman was injured Tuesday when her carport collapsed on her as she cleared snow off her driveway in Lincoln Estates, 1139 Lincoln Ave.The roof at the Christian Reformed Conference Grounds, 12253 Lakeshore Drive in Grand Haven Township, collapsed under the weight of the snow over the weekend.In Park Township, a man cleaning snow from a roof of a building along South Shore Drive on Wednesday fell into such deep snow that rescuers had a difficult time locating him.Witnesses followed a rope still hanging from the roof to the man buried in the snow. The man received non-life-threatening injuries, according to emergency personnel on the scene about noon.The heavy snowpack still on the ground will absorb much of today’s rain, limiting runoff into rivers, the weather service said.“The snow cover is so extensive and the ice is so thick on area streams and lakes that it will work against very high temperatures and will not melt all at once in this case,” said Ted Rodgers, National Weather Service hydro-meteorologist in an AccuWeather.com post.“The net result will be more water in the snowpack waiting to be released during the next warm-up event, which at this time is not likely until early March,” the weather service said in its most recent hydrologic outlook.Strained roofs that survive the added weight from today’s rain could succumb to additional storms later this season, said AccuWeather.com meteorologist Alex Sosnowski.After today’s rain, the temperatures plummet tonight to around 27 degrees, possibly leading to icy roads Friday morning. Strong winds could down power lines.“Drivers, pedestrians and property owners need to be on the lookout for potentially dangerous conditions that can change in a matter of minutes in some cases,” said Sosnowski.The cold air continues through the weekend with highs in the mid- to upper-20s.The average high in February is about 36 degrees.— Follow Jim Hayden on Twitter@SentinelJim.